What I Learned About Monetization by Launching a Lit Mag

"The presence of love does not eradicate the reality of labor."

Welcome to our weekly column offering perspectives on lit mag publishing, with contributions from readers, writers and editors around the world.

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If you’re reading this, you’re probably familiar with the grind of reading lit mags, scouring journals for work that resonates with yours, researching editors and editorial priorities, checking their reading periods, if they accept simultaneous submissions, and reformatting your drafts to match their specifications. And then, the final step in Submittable: you pay the reading fee. For me, this last step feels disheartening. Like, wow—I literally have to pay someone to read my work? I can’t even give my essays away?

But then I helped start a lit mag.